Viewers react to Miley Cyrus performance with pity, fear

By Graham Dixon

Published 5:34 am, Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Photo: Charles Sykes

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Robin Thicke, left, and Miley Cyrus perform "Blurred Lines" at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013, at the Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP) less

Robin Thicke, left, and Miley Cyrus perform "Blurred Lines" at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013, at the Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (Photo by Charles ... more

Photo: Charles Sykes

Viewers react to Miley Cyrus performance with pity, fear

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Of course it had to happen. At some point contemporary art — and I mean art in the broadest sense of the word — leaves us behind. The fact that it came with twerking, or the twerk, or a twerker, and a former Disney good-girl pretending to have gone decidedly bad, is beside the point. The Miley Cyrus VMA Award Ceremony performance resembled a cross between The Wiggles and “I Am the Walrus” — with none of the former’s undeniable sweetness or the latter’s unalterable genius.

Previous generations were scandalized by Elvis and swinging hips, by the supposedly devil-owned music going mainstream — but they were always shocked and offended. They were not, as occurred to me while watching Miley Cyrus go through her bizarre perambulations and gyrations, simply bored.

One of the great lessons of art is that if you try too hard, you are bound to fail. Whatever you are doing, it must appear effortless. Elvis moved in that way because that was — and is — the only way to react to his music. Nothing was contrived. Miley Cyrus, from her attempt to corrupt our vision of that most innocent of objects — the Teddy Bear — and on to her mimicking of the most intimate moments, failed because there was always a subtext of “Look at me! Look at me!”

We did. And then, if we had a choice, our eyes moved on quickly.

Not, one might suggest, exactly the intended reaction.

But then, as Oscar Wilde quipped, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about, and by this measure alone Miley Cyrus comes out a winner. Whatever the invective and derision being hurled her way, she is the star of the moment in popular culture. However, if a public figure becomes the object of derision — if, for all intents and purposes, she is being laughed at — then while the battle for public attention is won, the war for lasting stardom is lost.

Perhaps I am just a fuddy-duddy who is hopelessly out touch with the latest cultural trends, but Miley’s VMA performance looked strangely dated — like a piece of 60s performance art on some steroidal trip into excess. It was a perverse swan-song for a star who tried to perform the miraculous makeover required to move from child to adult star and, like most who try, failed in the effort.

Tragedy, so the Greeks suggested, should provoke pity and fear. Watching Miley Cyrus should provoke pity from anyone embarrassed at watching someone make a fool of themselves, fear that perhaps they might be seen in the same way one day.

An earlier version of this article included the supposed Will Smith and family reaction to Miley Cyrus. In reality it was a shot from them reacting to Lady GaGa, not Cyrus at all. In a more just world the picture would have been taken during her performance, as their faces perfectly capture the range of emotion of anyone watching.